Notes from the Kraken: October 16th 2016

Welcome again to We Have Always Live the Kraken, a pop culture blog transmitted directly to you from the belly of the beast. Here in the Notes we’ll show you this week’s posting schedule.

It’s showtime!

So we are finally at a long-awaited point with the release of Playstation VR. The point where virtual reality can really hit the masses at large, and we find out just how much of a real deal this technology is. This audition has been a long time coming. Virtual reality has been a thing for decades, but until recently only really in our imaginations. Sure, there have been virtual reality experiences available to people in amusement parks or special venues, but not something you can affordably put into your home (and no, Virtual Boy definitely doesn’t count). Now Oculus Rift helped slowly change this, because at least it really brought the experience into the home (and admittedly is really cool), but its price point hasn’t been manageable until recently. Still, it helped beget the HTC Vive, and then the inventive Gear VR and Google Cardboard. All of these options, combined with the Playstation VR, have created a myriad array of consumer VR options were there were once none. Now, whether or not VR is the ultimate next step in viewing and gaming experiences remains to be seen (honestly, I am a much bigger fan of the potential for augmented reality), but this is still huge, because the increased accessibility means we can really begin to see what the technology has to offer. This has been a bit of futuristic technology that has seemed just out of reach for so long, and now it finally seems to be a reasonable reality. Of course, this could all go very wrong very quickly, as VR’s first real test with the masses is brought done by the archaic Move system Sony anchored to their Playstation VR. But now is a time for optimism. The future feels like it could now be upon us, and we can only hope it was worth the wait.

Killtoberfest is upon us, so make sure to check the blog and our Twitter @insidethekraken to see what Kyu has for us this year.

Things are going to run a bit differently during Killtoberfest, as we are leaving the day-by-day structure behind until November. With that said, from the depths of the Kraken, here is what we are bringing you this week.

Killtoberfest: Kyu will keep this updated to let you know what goes up during the week.

Here’s what the rest of us lazy bums have to offer (also will be updated throughout the week as necessary).

The Anticipated returns as David takes a look at The Girl on the Train. This book to movie adaption had a lot of buzz as it looked in many ways as if it would follow in the footsteps of 2014’s female-centric pop lit thriller Gone Girl. Did this new film have as much adaptation success? Find out this week.

Catch of the Week:

Each and every week the residents here in the Kraken will offer one recommendation for the week that we think you all would enjoy. It might be a movie. It might be a book. Who knows? This is your… Catch of the Week.

David: Digimon has seen a bit of a resurgence with the release of Digimon Adventures Tri over the past year or so, and this continued with the release in March of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. This old school JRPG is beautifully designed, and offers a fun take on the Digimon genre. It’s a bit grindy certainly, but a lot of fun if that is your type of game so give it a shot if you want something to scratch the JRPG itch before the release of the new Pokemon and (allegedly) Final Fantasy.

That’s it for this week. The Kraken is heading to Nega Vegas for a massive bender, so if things get a little loopy, just close your eyes, because it’s going to get worse.